Posts Tagged ‘Superman’
Superman Peanut Butter
Not to be confused with National Peanut Butter Day or National PB & J Day, today – March 1 – is National Peanut Butter Lovers Day.
It is a day to remember the food of kings and the masses has many fathers and many origins. The peanut paste product stands alone or completes so many combinations. Peanut butter is a multi million dollar a year industry.
Taking on the big boys, i.e. JIF, Peter Pan, Smuckers, Skippy, etc; is not an easy task. One that would be Herculean for most. Or, even a job for someone with powers far beyond those of mortal man.
A job for Superman.
Sometime in the late 1970s a maverick private label peanut butter company called Sunnyland Refining Co. chose a small advertising firm to tackle the peanut butter market. Rather than join the fray on merit, it would seek licensing to catapult it onto store shelves.
It just so happened DC Comics, a subsidy of Warner Communications, had made a company wide agreement not to whore the Superman name out for food products unless it was nutritious. Sunnyland’s peanut butter was deemed so and a partnership was formed.
Superman Peanut Butter hit grocery store shelves around 1981.
While not affiliated with any DC Comics production, cross promotions were included in the deal. At one point Superman Peanut Butter purchasers could redeem two product labels for a free copy of Action Comics issue one. Another tie in offered coupons for Super Powers merchandise.
The brand would remain a staple of many diets for the next decade.
Peanut butter can be traced back to the Aztec and Inca civilizations. They ground roasted peanuts into a paste.
More modern dabblers include Marcellus Gilmore Edson of Quebec, Canada, cited for receiving the first patent for a method of producing peanut butter from roasted peanuts using heated surfaces in 1884.
George Bayle, a businessman from St. Louis, sold peanut butter as a snack food in 1894. The dietary aid became more of a kitchen staple when, in 1917, peanut butter was used as a source of protein during meatless Mondays when rationing was in effect for World War I.
Breakfast cereal magnate John Kellogg championed peanut butter as a meat alternative in his campaign to substitute plant based products for a healthier lifestyle.
Maybe the most recognized name in the peanut butter game is George Washington Carver. A common misconception credits him as the inventor of peanut paste. Rather, Carver merely published a document entitled How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing it for Human Consumption.
The list of peanut butter contributors continues, but you get the gist.
Sit back, enjoy a peanut butter delicacy of choice and watch Superman shill for Wall Street as we round out the day.
It’s in the cards
Today is a day to commemorate wax packs, stale sticks of gum and cardboard likenesses from sports figures to movie scenes.
Sometimes referred to as Topps Trading Card Day, this is also National Trading Card Day.
Trading cards, or more specifically, baseball cards, were first manufactured in the 1860s. As the twentieth century dawned, baseball cards began being packaged with candy or tobacco products. Goudy Gum Company is credited with initially including gum with the product in 1933.
1940 Superman card
While The Topps Company was originally the largest of the baseball card companies, it was Bowman Gum Company – before they were bought by Topps – who produced the 1940s Superman-based set of collectible cards. The set consists of 72 cards in all, each featuring a full-color drawing of Superman. Naturally these, and others of their ilk, are the collectible card sets we’ll be focusing on today.
Donruss licensed the Marvel stable of heroes for a set of 66 in 1966.
They were overshadowed by their Distinguished Competition that same year when Topps produced a 55 companion card set riding ABC’s popular television series coattails featuring the Caped Crusader.
By the 1970s, Marvel was surpassing DC in sales and popularity. Topps chose to commit to a line of stickers featuring the House of Idea’s characters and corny one-liners.
Fantasy Trade Company featured replicas of Marvel first issue covers on cardstock in 1984.
Though the Superman and Batman movies generated trading card sets, let’s focus on the source material.
In 1991 Marvel opened the floodgates with an Impel printed 167 card set. Five chase holograms were featured – Spider-Man, Magneto, Silver Surfer, Wolverine and Spider-Man v. Green Goblin.
Impel offered a set of 180 DC Comics cards that same year complete with 10 holograms.
Offerings continue to this day from various card companies featuring various publishers’ products.
1984 Marvel first issue trading card
Happy Valentines Day…Teacher!
And, lest we forget, everyone should show their teacher a little love on Valentine’s Day.
Often there is that unrequited interest a student will show for their instructor. As long as it doesn’t progress to the point of the Police’s Don’t Stand So Close to Me, there’s no problem. Teachers actually receive the most Valentine’s Day cards each year. Next are children followed by mothers and wives.
The tradition of exchanging cards in the class room began more than 70 years ago. If you’ve been following the postings this Valentine’s season, you’ll have seen cards dating as far back as 1940. It was recorded that Fred Roth, a fourth grader in a small farming town in Lewiston, Minnesota, gave his sweetheart, Louise Wirt, a Valentine’s Day card in 1917. He may have started the tradition that continues to this day.
The card reads, “Forget me not!
I ask of thee
Reserve one spot
In your heart for me.”
The two would eventually marry. The card has outlasted both and now is in the possession of their granddaughter.
Vintage Valentine’s Day with Superman
Geoffrey Chaucer penned Parliament of Fowls in 1382. The poem was a dream vision of birds searching for their mates:
In modern English:
“For this was on Saint Valentine’s Day
When every bird comes to choose his match
Of every kind that men may think of
And that so huge a noise they began to make
That the Earth and air and tree and every lake
Was so full, that not easily was there space
For me to stand – so full was all the place.”
The earliest reference to February 14 as a celebration of love is in the Charter of Court of Love. Issued in 1400 by Charles VI of France at Mantes-la-Jolie was to host a feast, love songs, poetry competitions, jousting and dancing for members of the royal court. Included would be a portion of the festivities where lovers disputes would be heard and ruled upon.
1940 Superman Valentine
Jumping ahead a few centuries, The Young Man’s Valentine Writer was released by a British publisher. The volume was a primer for young lovers to compose amorous verses. By this time a limited number of cards were pre-printed to be sent to loved ones. In 1835, 60,000 Valentine cards were mailed within the United Kingdom.
That number would increase to 400,000 when postage rates dropped in 1840.
Valentine’s Day has only found more traction with the passage of time until it celebrant spent in excess of $25 billion dollars in 2024. That breaks down to over $181 per person.
The Superman card representing the continued countdown came from an era where much less was spent on sappy salutations, but the point came across anyway.
DIY Valentine Fun
Okay, I kinda wanna try these out myself.
DC’s Super Friends was still airing in the 1980s when these hit the shelves. The show’s full tenure ran from 1973 to 1985. It’s original incarnation would premiere and rerun through 1977 when an annual renewal would continue till its demise in ‘85.
Apparently one of the licenses sold would lead to these Uber cool Valentines cards that were almost too good to give away. This sheet features the Joker, Batman, Superman and Aquaman.
Each have had their share of romantic partners, Joker with Harley Quinn/Harlequin. Harley has the distinction of first being introduced on Batman: The Animated Series.
Batman/Bruce Wayne with Julie Madison from way back in Detective Comics 31. Vickie Vale who first appeared in Batman 49. She would go on hiatus from the Bat titles between 1964 and the early 1980s. Selina Kyle/Catwoman who was introduced in Batman issue one. Talia Al Ghul from Detective Comics 411. There would be others, but the above mentioned were the ones who got away.
Unlike his playboy counterpart, Kal-El/Clark Kent/Superman has only had eyes for one woman: Lois Lane.
Arthur Curry/Aquaman is pretty much a one-woman hero himself. That honor falls to wife Mera.
Around the World
Remember that scene in the first Superman movie? The one where he flies counterclockwise around the world to turn back time to save Lois? Yeah, that one. You can even hear John Williams’ theme.
Well, there are many who say that can’t happen.
Are they the modern-day sceptics preaching the world is flat? We’ll leave that up to you while we celebrate, of all things, World Rotation Day.
If you are on the side of the non-believer’s fence, you believe Earth’s rotation is independent of time; there isn’t an arrow linked to time and motion. You are entrenched in the belief time flows in one direction: forward. Meaning, Superman could not reverse time by reversing the Earth’s spin.
But, wait.
Superman: The Movie
What if we hypothesize Superman didn’t reverse the rotation of the Earth? What if it was merely an illusion – like the wagon wheel effect – and only appeared to spin backward? That it is only Superman flying in reverse, traveling back in time?
That seems to be a popular general consensus around the world wide web.
Of course, the whole scene could have been handled in a much easier and less confusing manner if Supes had just popped over to his buddy, the Flash’s, and jumped on the Cosmic Treadmill. The Cosmic Treadmill, first introduced in The Flash (1959) 125. Not only did the treadmill allow Flash the ability to travel through time, but to parallel Earths. Which led, eventually, to the Crisis on Infinite Earths.
The treadmill is powered by cosmic rays that use radioactive pulses to either send the user into the past or the future depending on what was input into the programmable interface – and also allow easier travel to alternate Earths by matching the vibrational frequency of the Earth in question. Once arrived, Flash was required to maintain an internal vibrational frequency of his current Earth. To return, he simply relaxed, allowing the vibrations to stop.
World Rotation Day is celebrated on January 8 to commemorate the day in 1851 when French physicist Leon Foucault proved that the Earth rotates on its axis. The day also serves as an opportunity to learn more about the Earth’s rotation and its effects on time, weather, gravity and astronomy.
DC Super Heroes mini (but mighty) ornaments
December 13th: 12 days and counting…
I admit I do not have these but am intrigued at the selection. I can certainly understand the Flash, Batman, Superman and Robin, but I’m mystified by what appears to be Alfred in the lower left-hand corner of the box. Not that I’m taking anything away from Batman’s trusted compatriot.
DC Superhero
mini-ornaments
Let’s face it, Alfred has been the keeper of Batman’s secret as long as pretty much anybody. In addition, he’s been the Dark Knight’s doctor, confidant and voice of reason longer than anyone else.
Alfred Thaddeus Crane Pennyworth, originally Alfred Beagle, first appeared in Batman issue 16 in 1944. While Don Cameron and Bob Kane, writer and penciler respectively, are credited as the faithful butler’s parents, there is strong evidence to suggest Victor McLeod, Leslie Swabacker and Harry Fraser gave life to Alfred for the 1943 Batman serial. DC Comics asked the trio to take a back seat and allow Cameron to write the original Alfred story prior to the serial’s release.
This five-piece festive set is courtesy of Kurt Adler.
Superman Santa Ornament
December 11th: 14 days and counting…
As mentioned earlier this month, Superman: The Animated Series was another breath of fresh air from network wanna be Fox. Using the same format as Batman: The Animated Series, Superman proved he could hold his own in the animated jungle of Saturday mornings.
While he may have followed Batman on Fox, Superman was first out the gate in 1941 when Fleischer Studios released nine cartoons under their imprint. Each episode cost $50,000, a little over $8,000 minute. Fleischer Studios dissolved a year later and reformed as Famous Studios who animated the remaining eight shorts.
Superman would remain vacant from the animated field for over 20 years until The New Adventures of Superman aired. He later was teamed with Batman for The Batman/Superman Hour. Throughout the 1970s and early 80s, Superman would pretty much partner with his fellow crusaders in various incarnations of the Justice League beginning with The Super Friends in 1973.
So, enjoy the Man of Steel as he helps Santa bring warmth and cheer to all the good boys and girls around the world.
Peace on Earth
December 5th: 20 days and counting…
Superman is the first of the superheroes, custodian of truth, justice and the American way courtesy of two scrawny Ohio kids. Yet he was four years later than Batman in making his animated Fox TV debut, appearing Sept. 6th, 1996.
In the wake of Batman’s success, Fox execs tapped the Man of Steel for his own animated show. Its final episode aired Feb. 12th, 2000.
Midway through the show’s run, it was combined with the New Batman Adventures to form The New Batman/Superman Adventures. The series further cemented an animated universe including guest stars Batman, Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Hawkgirl. Not coincidently, Justice League Unlimited spun off the series.
This Warner store exclusive was another late 1990s offering selling for a mere $8, less than $16 today.
Superman 411
We’ve observed this day twice before, each time from the Marvel angle. Today we’re celebrating National Proofreading Day with a dearly departed foundation of the comic book industry, Julius Schwartz.
As in the past, National Proofreading Day began in 2011 when Judy Beaver created the day in honor of her mother, Flo, who lived to correct people. Not in a belittling way, but to help them. March 8 was chosen because it was Flo’s birthday.
But, we’ve covered that all before.
So, let’s talk about our emcee for the day, Mr. Schwartz.
The DC Comics giant was involved with the industry almost since its beginning. He was there when two scrawny kids from Ohio sold their creation from another planet. He rode herd on that same hero’s book as well as DC Comics other flagship crusader, Batman. He advised as one era passed to another.
But, before all this, Schwartz was born June 19, 1915, in the Bronx, New York.
A longtime science fiction fan, Schwartz began his literary career as an agent for fledging writers of the genre. Together with Mort Weisinger and Forrest J. Ackerman – who coined the term sci-fi – they published Time Traveller, one of the first science fiction fanzines. Schwartz and Weisinger opened the Solar Sales Service literary agency. The future comic book editor represented such notables as Alfred Bester, Stanley G. Weinbaum, Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury and H.P. Lovecraft.
In his spare time, Schwartz also helped found the first World Science Fiction Convention in 1939.
He would begin work for All-American Publications, a subsidiary of DC Comics, as an editor in 1944.
Schwartz, with writer Robert Kanigher and artist Carmine Infantino, initiated the Silver Age by revamping The Flash for Showcase issue four in October 1956. More science fiction oriented than his Golden Age inspiration, The Flash would star in four issues of Showcase before receiving his own title. Others would follow, all with a sci-fi flavor, including Green Lantern, Hawkman and the Atom.
As the list of heroes grew, Schwartz saw the opportunity to relaunch another title, albeit with a fresh coat of paint, with the Justice League of America. The team debuted in The Brave and the Bold issue 28 before moving to its own self-titled book six months later.
Schwartz didn’t stop with the new kids. In 1964 he turned his editorial attention to the faltering Batman titles. Following the Comics Code Authority’s intervention, the Dark Knight stepped from the shadows and into the light. For a decade he and Robin would play the jesters to public opinion.
At his insistence, Batman was given a makeover and a coming out party in Detective Comics 327 with his “New Look.”
A couple years later Batman was rebranded on television. Schwartz championed newcomers Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams to, once again, make the Caped Crusader readable. Schwartz would surrender his editorship with the Batman books in 1978 and 1979.
He would steer Superman from 1971 through 1986 when the the long-time editor would step down after 42 years.
In 2000 Schwartz would co-author his autobiography with Brian Thomsen, Man of Two Worlds: My Life in Science Fiction.
He passed Feb. 8, 2004.
The comic of choice for today is Superman 411, The Last Earth Prime Story. The staff of DC Comics surprised Schwartz with a semi-auto biographical issue to celebrate his 70th birthday.
He would be immortalized in other titles as well. These included The Flash 179, Justice League of America 123 and 124, Action Comics 583, Superman and Batman: World’s Funnest and as a back up in Ambush Bug titles.
See how many mistakes you can find in this missive and wish a comic book giant a belated and posthumous thank you.